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If you thought Transplant is over the top, check out what’s going down in South Korea (courtesy of www.ubergizmo.com)

Samsung SGR-A1 Robot Sentry Is One Cold Machine

A Samsung Group subsidiary has worked on a robot sentry that they call the SGR-A1, and this particular robot will carry a fair amount of weapons that ought to make you think twice about crossing the borders of South Korea illegally – as it has been tested out at the demilitarized zone along the border over with its neighbor, North Korea. The SGR-A1 will be able to detect intruders with the help of machine vision (read: cameras), alongside a combination of heat and motion sensors.

The whole idea of the Samsung SGR-A1 is to let this military robot sentry do the work of its human counterparts over at the demilitarized zone at the South and North Korea border, so that there will be a minimal loss of life on the South Korean side just in case things turn sour between the two neighbors.

First announced in 2006 (where obvious improvements have been made since, and I am not surprised if much of it remained as classified information), this $200,000, all weather, 5.56 mm robotic machine gun also sports an optional grenade launcher. It will make use of its IR and visible light cameras to track multiple targets and remains under the control of a human operator from a remote location. Basically, it claims to be able to “identify and shoot a target automatically from over two miles (3.2 km) away.” Scary! When used on the DMZ, this robot will not distinguish between friend or foe – anyone who crosses the line is deemed as an enemy.

The darkest subplot in John Reinhard Dizon’s Transplantfocuses on Adam Rauch’s diabolical deal with drug lord Django Tamsulosin. Django agrees to supply ‘volunteers’ for Rauch’s experiments with the understanding that they are never to return to the streets of Harlem. At first the victims are brought to the lab on the brink of death, and Adam harvests their organs before they expire. Eventually they are brought while unconscious, and Adam realizes that Django expects them to be euthanized. He begins to keep the survivors in a state of heavy sedation, rationalizing that captivity is a more humane fate than death itself.

Human trafficking in the 21st century has reached epidemic proportions. There are more people being held against their will and used as chattel than during the peak of the Slavery Era of past centuries. The United Nations webpage at http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html documents the ongoing struggle against human exploitation. Though the plight of the victims in Transplant may be a fictional representation of such scenarios, it is imperative that reading audiences everywhere become aware of such injustices. From drug addicts to supermodels to NBA superstars, this novel reminds us that when the weakest among us are endangered, ultimately we must all join together to eliminate the threat to one and all.

One of the more chilling subplots in Transplant is the tragic tale of Geri Lindsay. The supermodel, like fellow victim Jerome Browne, seeks resolution in returning to her childhood neighborhood and falls afoul of the megalomaniacal drug lord, Django Tamsulosin. In real life, Harlem in NYC is not only the place where black Americans have turned their fantasies into reality in generations past, but continues to inspire hope for young people to this day.

Harlem Model Search is but one of many institutions where a real life Geri Lindsay may one day emerge. Their website at http://harlemmodelsearch.tumblr.com/tagged/harlemmodelsearch provides photos and information about their services to hopeful and talented young women in NYC. It is just a sampling of all that the legendary and essential Harlem community continues to offer!

In Chapter One we follow the Four Doctors to Adam Rauch’s brownstone on Grace Court at the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights. It provides residents and visitors with a breathtaking view of the Manhattan skyline, arguably one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Rauch and his friends’ parents bought the homes back in the day, when they sold for a million dollars. Now this apartment is listed at $1.8 million dollars. Just the one apartment.

How times change. We remember the Patty Duke Show of the Sixties which made the Heights famous. In the Seventies, the horror flick The Sentinel was filmed at 10 Montague Terrace (see photo). That’s when they really started upping the ante in this real estate area. To add insult to injury, this is listed as a one-bedroom apartment.

The narrative speaks of how the four friends would hang out under the Brooklyn Bridge at night, admiring the view and dreaming of their future success. It was an autobiographical touch by JRD, who spent his own childhood fantasizing about his own slice of the Big Apple while gazing at the Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, and dozens of other landmarks.

“You couldn’t ask for a more inspirational sight,” reminisces the author. “You could hang out under the Bridge or on the Promenade all night and come back the next night, and the next and the next. It was something you can never get tired of. Whenever I go back for a reunion with my old buddies, at the end of the evening, we’re right back where it all started.”

Dr. Adam Rauch is the guiding light behind the underground East Harlem Research Project in the team’s tenement basement lab. The pioneer of the team, he successfully transplanted the limbs of a white cat onto a black cat, convincing his friends to embark on the project. His Mensa-level IQ enabled him to ‘watch and learn’ from his colleagues during the procedures. As a result, he was able to make great strides on his own in bionic limb attachments and transgenic skin grafting. Only his side deal with Django Tamsulosin resulted in a dangerous compromise in which non-volunteers were brought to the lab as unconscious subjects of the unscrupulous experiments.